“Do I ever pass your test?”
“Every time. You wouldn’t be sitting here if you didn’t.” She sipped her tea and gave me a long look.
“You should know, Devi’s left me. I don’t know how much Mom has told you about that. We’ve separated. I don’t know if we can work things out. I came here hoping to earn my inheritance so I could get her back. Because when we married, I told her that I’d divorce her once it was all finalized.”
“Why?”
“You saw the prenup. She’d be set up with a healthy alimony.”
“I don’t see that girl wanting alimony at the cost of her dignity.”
“She wants the agency. Superior’s west coast office. It’s her dream.”
“Oh, Dane.” My grandmother put her teacup down with a rattle of the saucer. “You bought her to secure your inheritance. Because I liked her.”
“Yes. I did. I tried to.” I took a breath and told her. “The marriage was fake. I mean, it’s legal. But the relationship was fake. My feelings for her are real, though. I want to win her back, but I need the inheritance so I can win her back and give her what I promised her. But I can’t get it without her, can I? If she leaves me, it’s just more proof to you that I am my father’s son.”
“It’s quite a conundrum,” she agreed.
“Any chance you’re willing to make a deal?”
My grandmother seemed to consider that. But I couldn’t have guessed what she was thinking behind those gray eyes of hers.
“Get her back, Dane,” she said. “Quietly. As far as the world knows, you were never apart. And this mess with Laurinda… you leave it to us, your mother and I, to deal with. When Christiana took you home, to raise you as her own, despite her husband’s betrayal… that’s what she signed on for. You’re her son. She’ll protect you. You continue on as you are, becoming the man we know you can be. If Devi is your wife when you turn thirty, the inheritance is yours. And once you’re in a position to give her everything you told her you would, we’ll see if she stays or goes. If she loves you or not.” She tapped a button on her phone, and the door opened behind me. Gloria poked her head in. “Play it for him, please,” my grandmother said.
Gloria disappeared for a moment, then returned with a laptop. She tapped a button and I heard Devi’s voice.
“Well, if that’s the plan, honestly, why wait? We’ll just separate now and no one even has to know. You need me as arm candy at any events? Just send a car to collect me and tell me what to wear. I’ll show up at your birthday and smile pretty for your grandmother. And meanwhile, we don’t have to put up with each other’s shit anymore.”
Gloria stopped the recording. It wastherecording. It was what Devi said to me the day she walked out on me, and hearing it now, here, sent shivers down my spine.
My grandmother had a copy of it.
And Devi sounded really fucking angry. Worse, she sounded hurt. I didn’t even hear how hurt she sounded when she said those words to me.
“How did you get that?” I asked my grandmother.
“Leave us, please,” she said, and Gloria vanished again. “How do you think I got it, Dane? Someone sent it to me, two days ago. The same day your wife received her copy, as it turns out.”
“You could’ve told me.”
“Why would I tell you? Why wouldn’t I give you a few days to see if you’d come to me first, and tell me the truth, that Devi had left you? I knew it was Laurinda. It’s been Laurinda all along. I didn’t realize she was behind the sex tape, but the rest of it… that false accusation in the media? And now this? It reeks of her desperation.”
“I didn’t know. I never would’ve guessed that she was out to destroy me.”
“Why? Because you think she loves you? She never fought for you, Dane. You have no idea how many battles your mother,Christiana, has fought for you, behind the scenes. You’ve lived a very comfortable life, because your mother has never stopped fighting for you. Don’t underestimate her or her love for you. She’d fight Laurinda to the grave for you, if I’d let her.”
Shit.I rubbed my hand over my face. This was a lot to absorb. The last twelve hours, I felt like my life had flipped literally upside-down, and everything went spilling out, like marbles scattering into the dark. How was I supposed to pull it all back together?
I felt like there so much I didn’t know, or understand, about my own family. But worse, about myself.
“So, what now?” I asked her. “What happens with Laurinda?”
“Nothing. As always. Our lawyers will be in touch with her and she’ll back down. She has too much to lose here. Now that she’s been caught, she’ll back off, like she always has. And whether or not you have any kind of relationship with her… I leave that up to you. I wouldn’t advise it, but you’re a man now.”
I stared at her. When had my grandmother ever left that kind of thing up to me, without imposing her expectations on me first?
“You’re not a boy anymore, Dane,” she said, like she was reading my mind. “Perhaps Christiana would like you to remain one. It’s hard for mothers when their children grow up and need them less and less. But you make your own choices. I won’t always be here to tell you what to do.”
